Woody Woodpecker
Woody Woodpecker is the main protagonist in the animated series of the same name. History Woody was created in 1940 by storyboard artist Ben "Bugs" Hardaway, who had previously laid the groundwork for two other screwball characters, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, at the Warner Bros. cartoon studio in the late 1930s. Woody's character and design would evolve over the years, from an insane bird with an unusually garish design to a more refined looking and acting character in the vein of the later Chuck Jones version of Bugs Bunny. Woody was originally voiced by prolific voice actor Mel Blanc, who was succeeded by Ben Hardaway and later by Grace Stafford, wife of Walter Lantz. Lantz produced theatrical cartoons longer than most of his contemporaries, and Woody Woodpecker remained a staple of Universal's release schedule until 1972, when Lantz finally closed down his studio. The character has been revived since then only for special productions and occasions, save for one new Saturday morning cartoon, The New Woody Woodpecker Show, for the Fox Network in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Woody Woodpecker cartoons were first broadcast on television in 1957 under the title The Woody Woodpecker Show, which featured Lantz cartoons bookended by new footage of Woody and live-action footage of Lantz. Woody has a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 7000 Hollywood Boulevard. He also made a cameo alongside many other famous cartoon characters in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Woody Woodpecker and friends are also icons at the PortAventura Park in Salou, Spain. Brought to the park by Universal Studios, Woody and friends remain there despite Universal no longer having a financial stake in the park. In the 2017 live-action/CGI film, Woody is the main protagonist. History Early Years In the earliest cartoons, he was essentially Lantz's answer to Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny, being a strange hybrid of the two characters, with the energy, quirkiness, looniness, and demented nature of Classic Daffy merged with hints of the wiseacre attitude of Bugs—also enforced by the fact that they even got Bugs' and Daffy's voice actor for the first three cartoons! After the first batch of cartoons however, the wiseacre bit of Woody was casually dropped in favor of the more screwy aspects of his character. But things changed when original director Alex Lovy stepped down and ex-Disney animator Shamus Culhane took over direction of the shorts for a few years, ramping up the direction of the previous cartoons considered. Debut Woody first appeared in the short, Knock Knock alongside Andy Panda and his father. The woodpecker constantly pesters the two pandas, apparently just for the fun of it. Andy, meanwhile, tries to sprinkle salt on Woody's tail in the belief that this will somehow capture the bird. To Woody's surprise, Andy's attempts prevail, and Woody is taken away to the funny farm — but not before his captors prove to be crazier than he is. Woody's debut is what started his big time career. Since then, Walter Lantz continued to have Woody appear in new films and shorts for Universal. Shamus Culhane Years Shamus Culhane changed Woody considerably, as well as giving Woody his iconic redesign. His take on Woody was much more fleshed out than the previous incarnation — wheras the original character was just a mindless heckler that went about causing havoc on sheer principle, Shamus supplied Woody with more clearly defined traits so that we could understand why he was going about causing trouble — specifically, by estasblishing that he is a selfish, ignorant being who only stands for himself and will not stop at nothing to achieve his goals, regardless of whoever gets in his way. He also helped firmly establish Woody's trait of being a big food enthusiast (which did pop up in early cartoons, but wasn't a central part of the character) which served as the basis for many of his cartoons. However, Culhane's direction, for all of his improvements, made Woody a bit too unlikable, taking him from being a screwy bird to sometimes being flat out malacious in some episodes (i.e. The Barber of Seville). Later Years But this changed yet again when Disney veteran Dick Lundy took the directors chair, and toned down Woody considerably, establishing that he cannot go crazy unless given a genuine reason to. By the 50s, at the behest of Universal, Lantz softened Woody more into a heroic character, with occasional bouts of his old antics time and time again. He is more heroic, calm, and kinder and outsmarts people for actual reasons (another similarity to Bugs Bunny). He is shown alongside foes such as Wally Walrus, Ms. Meany, Buzz Buzzard, Gabby Gator, and Dapper Denver Dooley. Besides enemies, he is shown with a niece and nephew named Knothead and Splinterand a girlfriend named Winnie Woodpecker. The New Woody Woodpecker Show Woody returns as the protagonist on the Fox Kids TV series, The New Woody Woodpecker Show. He is voiced by Billy West in this new series. Woody appears as the neighbor of Wally Walrus and Ms. Meany. In this, he is more smart and sympathetic than his original counterpart. He frequently gets into mischief with Wally and Ms. Meany (who is his landlady), and Buzz Buzzard, who is prone to scamming and conning Woody.Category:Characters Category:Woody Woodpecker characters Category:Males Category:Animals Category:Cartoon characters Category:Birds Category:Woodpeckers Category:Heroes Category:Crazy characters Category:Geniuses Category:Uncles Category:Pessimists Turned Optimists Category:Adventurers Category:Universal Studios characters